Twin Peaks Drive In — Restaurant in Hood River

Updated 06/2022 Review: Memories of what it felt like 10 years ago keep making me forget the current reality. So I've been back twice more. The whole experience all three times was like going to a vending machine that slowly (sometimes very slowly) drops out bags of (often very good) hamburgers.

Wait times on the two more recent visits were about 35 minutes and about 20 minutes. Much improved from the 70 minute wait in July 2021. As for price, Two people being neither extravagant nor thrifty, will likely spend ~$30 with tip.

The best-case scenario now goes about like this: You order from their website or at the kiosk near the service window. Thankfully, you don't want to add something (like mayo) to your burger that isn't one of the pre-programmed customization options, because the vending machine sales model isn't set up well for that. Thankfully, you don't want to have your drinks while you wait for your food, because the vending machine sales model isn't set up well for that either. Thankfully, you don't have a question about anything, because the vending machine sales model also isn't set up well for that. You are asked to tip before receiving (and without any realistic expectation of receiving) what would qualify as service. But you do tip, because there are two good people hidden inside and working hard, who deserve it. Still, it feels like you are being played by whoever designed this system. You look over the tables outside and realize that the picnic table style ones (wood grain and sun-worn varnish) are pretty much impossible to clean. And the smooth-top ones are in the sun, and not super clean anyway. You pick one and have a seat. 15-20 minutes later you get a text telling you to come to the window, as your food is up. You go to the window, but no one is there. You ring the bell and wait. A minute or two later, someone runs out of the kitchen apologizing and asks how they can help you. You tell them you got the text. They run back and bring your bagged food and drinks to you. You go back to your table, put down some napkins to have a clean surface, and eat. Everything is delicious! (It's a best case scenario after all.) You finish... You clean your own table to the extent possible with dry napkins... It's at least as good as you found it. You manage to stuff your trash into the over-full garbage cans and leave.

So... That's the best realistic case I can imagine under the current sales model / design. Having really good food makes up for a lot, but there is just way too much about this sales model that works against the reasons I would want to go out in the first place.

And while the food is usually very good, the occasional issues that happen (under-cooked fries on one order) are impossible to resolve because... It's not a fast food place or a diner. It's a vending machine.

Hoping the pre-pandemic model (or something close) returns some day.

Summary of 07/2021 Review: 70 minute wait, $45+ for 4 burgers, 2 fries, 2 drinks. Good food, but not worth it. (Owner's response, assuming it's still there, may be responding to points I've deleted. Not trying to confuse things, but keeping the full text of both reviews...

This was a cute little Diner. We just got done down the road at the museum and wanted to try this place. The reviews seemed not all that bad so why not?!_ When we arrived, we were a bit confused; luckily there is plenty of open gravel parking even for us who were driving a full sized crew cab dually.. the sorta confusing part was seeing everyone outside waiting and trying to take turns on a Kiosk like computer to order. We didn't now tell a bit later that you could ALSO go INSIDE to order and also seating inside as well. My wife went online on her phone and saw that you could order your selection(s) from your phone thru there website.. although compared to others such diners, there prices were slightly better then typical of today BUT at the same time almost everything is nickle_and dimed here; cheese, mushrooms, even CONDIMENTS. we all enjoyed our meals yet. We ordered 2 bacon cheeseburgers ( one with mushrooms(extra), a bacon cheeseburger with extras and i got like a steak sandwich with cheese_extra. We also ordered a LARGE curly fries. the picture online showed a picture of a BASKET of fries_ which we assumed would be enough for 4 people to have just a little. My meal was ok; despite when as some of the toppings fell out onto my wrapper my wife reached in and litterslly pulled a about a 6" hair from the tomatoe that had fallen out off my sandwich. I wasn't going to say anything because who knows if/where it came from. My sons bacon burger with mushrooms had NO mushrooms on it. My wife's burger was good she said and my daughter's burger was ok too. The fries we GOT was a little baggie that was maybe enough for one person. We weren't going to complain; we were hungry and the place was mediocre busy and we just wanted to eat and continue on. I personally really enjoyed the nice sized cups with lemonade. ( no straws were...

I really liked this place the first couple times but the service and consistency of quality has gotten worse every time. Most recently, I placed an order, and it was supposed be ready in “up to 35 minutes”. After about 40 minutes I hadn’t received a text and they hadn’t called out any orders so we double checked to see if my order was ready to make sure we hadn’t missed a text or something. The woman said it wasn’t ready but that she would let us know when it was. Taking a it longer isn’t a big deal but they also weren’t busy really. No one else arrived we w were waiting and no one left, other than two cars in the drive through. There were a few folks inside we were the only ones outside. After we had been waiting over an hour, I still hadn’t received a text, they still hadn’t called out any orders, and it was after closing time. We checked again and my order was finally ready, after more than twice the time it should have taken. It looked like it had been sitting around and the food was tepid and soggy. Also, the order of tots was less than half the size of every other time we got them. The text finally showed up maybe 20 minutes after we picked up the order, but the timestamp was from about 10 minutes before we got it, which could have been my service or phone’s fault. It was a really disappointing experience. I’m not sure we’ll bother going back again.

Unrelated — they cook the meat and vegetarian...